Cops: Mom beat girl, 5, to death

Child's `short life in hell' included years of abuse, sheriff says

Melanie Beltran's life was brief and painful--and it ended Wednesday at her mother's hand, police said.

"This was a short life in hell," said Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart.

Over the last three years, Melanie, 5, was routinely tied up, struck, burned with cigarettes, forced to eat hot peppers and made to drink out of a toilet, Dart said. She also had been scalded, sustaining second- and third-degree burns, Dart said.

On Saturday, police charged Melanie's mother, Mila Petrov, 29, with beating her to death in their Maine Township condominium, Dart announced Sunday. Hospitalized Tuesday night, the girl died the next day, Dart said.

Petrov, who gave birth to a son Wednesday, the day Melanie died, was charged with first-degree murder in what Dart called the worst case of child abuse he had ever seen.

"These were the acts of a despicable animal," Dart said.

Police are now reinvestigating the death nine years ago of another of Petrov's children, a 3-month-old who died of what had been determined at the time as sudden infant death syndrome, Dart said.

Melanie died of multiple injuries, including blunt trauma and child abuse, at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Petrov and her husband have seven other children, including the newborn, Dart said. The oldest is 10, he said.

Melanie appeared to be the child whom Petrov "took out all her aggression on," Dart said. He could not explain why, saying that "it was a family that kept to themselves."

Police were investigating whether the father was involved in the abuse; he has not been charged, Dart said.

Sheriff's police said Petrov gave a videotaped confession after giving birth in Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park. She allegedly admitted that she abused Melanie, including slamming the child's head into a wall in the family's condo Tuesday night.

Dart said the beating began after the girl threw up her dinner.

"The defendant woke up and decided to beat her to death," Dart said.

Authorities said Petrov lives in the 8900 block of Kennedy Drive, which is in an unincorporated area of Cook County between Des Plaines and Morton Grove. No one was at home Sunday afternoon.

Four of Petrov's children--but not Melanie--began attending Apollo School in Des Plaines in September, Principal Lynn Glickman said.

Glickman said the children are in kindergarten, 1st, 3rd and 4th grades. She would not comment on whether they had ever shown signs of abuse, nor would she talk about Petrov.

Social workers have talked to pupils in two classes as children began learning of the girl's death last week, Glickman said. She expects more questions as news of the alleged abuse spreads.

"We have students who live in the building where the family lives," Glickman said.

One parent in the family's building, Raju Varghese, said his 5-year-old daughter is in the same kindergarten class as one of Petrov's children.

He said the family moved into the building sometime last year, but he didn't realize that all of the children he saw with Petrov were hers.

"I thought they were baby-sitting," Varghese said.

Varghese said he never saw signs that any of the children were abused.

Jimmie Whitelow, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which is investigating, said the agency had no previous contact with the family. All of Melanie's siblings have been placed with other family members, Whitelow said.

Dart said the children's father, who works nights, came home about 7 p.m. Tuesday, found Melanie unconscious and called 911.

Melanie was taken to Lutheran General, where doctors immediately recognized signs of abuse, Dart said. She was pronounced dead at 3:10 p.m. Wednesday.

Petrov was in custody pending a bond hearing Monday in the Skokie Courthouse.

Authorities say Petrov has arrest records for burglary and theft.

Petrov pleaded guilty in April 2004 to two counts of retail theft for separate arrests in August and October 2003. She was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

She pleaded guilty in 1995 to one count of residential burglary, for which she received 2 years of probation. She has been arrested three other times and accused of theft and assorted misdemeanors, but was not convicted.

Dr. Ron Davidson, a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the most important thing to do is ensure the safety of the other youngsters in the home.

"Before we go looking for reasons, the first thing you do is protect the other living children and let the courts sort it out later," he said. "These kinds of cases are often very complex, but that's not to say that's an excuse."

Davidson, a consultant for DCFS since 1994, said it's too early to tell what may have gone wrong and he did not know the specifics of Petrov's case. He said the explanation might range from mental illness to sadism.

"There are sadistic qualities here, whether or not there is a mental illness at the core," Davidson said.

The father had worked at Best Buy in Niles for several months before leaving about eight weeks ago, said former co-worker Ricky Carrillo, who still works at the store. He said he suspected there were some problems with the family, although the news of the girl's death came as a shock.

Carrillo said Petrov called her husband at work several times a day, so much so that employees would lie on his behalf, saying he was busy.

"She always sounded kind of upset," Carrillo said. "He would joke about his wife giving him a hard time."

Carrillo said the father never indicated he had serious problems at home. The father said he was proud of his children, and brought them to the store once, Carrillo said.

Varghese, the neighbor, said: "It seemed like it was a decent family. Everything was fine. It seemed like she was taking care of the kids."